Press Release

Exclusive | Gayatri Yadav's 'Belief' on STARSports

11 November 2013

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?‘Refresh’, ‘Assemble’ and ‘Revamp’ could be best words to describe STAR India’s latest move with the sports offerings. The network has taken a calculated step by unifying all its sports channels under one brand name STAR Sports, shedding off the tag ESPN. STAR, unveiled a new brand for Star Sports across 6 TV channels -- StarSports 1,2,3,4, HD1 and HD2 and starsports.com. The brand aims to highlight Star Network’s ambition to change the face of sports broadcasting in India and provide world-class sports coverage to fans across the country. Hence, to signal the change to the consumers, STAR India has brought all the 6 diverse TV channels under one brand “Star Sports”, with one purpose “Believe”.

Adgully caught up with Gayatri Yadav, Executive Vice President Marketing & Communications, STAR India to know about this move and all the action around it.

The announcement of the new network was done with a campaign that urges India to “Believe”. Speaking about the aim and rationale of the campaign Yadav said, “Our aim is to make ‘STARSports’ one of the most iconic sports brands in the world. The campaign is based on a core insight that consumers are searching for hero moments in their life. They want to strive for better and realize their own potential for greatness. Our belief is that everyone can take part and share in greatness. We can all be inspired. The mission is to bring the fan closer to heroes than ever before. Our aim is to inspire the hero in you.”

The network has signed M.S Dhoni as their first “Believe” ambassador. The campaign outlines the beliefs that have made M.S.Dhoni one of the most iconic heroes of our time. The TVC slows down a classic helicopter shot of MS Dhoni to get inside the mind of the hero. The campaign created by Ogilvy and includes lines such as “Mujhe yakeen hai ki sirf sheher chote hai, waha ke log aur unke khwaab nahin”. “We could not have found a better embodiment of a man who became a hero on the dint of self-belief. M.S.Dhoni is the most successful captain in the world and an inspirational figure to many. He is a living embodiment of the Star Sport brand “Believe”, Yadav said.

The campaign supported on Star network, was strategically rolled out last week, when India would tune in to watch Sachin Tendulkar play the last series of his sports career.

From the numerous different activities in the campaign, the move to unify the brand looked more than a mere new brand announcement. “This was a statement of purpose. A mission to put sports first. To deliver such a powerful brand promise, we required a high impact strategy. In a bold and innovative campaign we asked India to ‘imagine a world where sports come first’ and this thought has been carried through across media. Star Sports has enabled sports to move to the front page of a newspaper in India. In a unique move, editions across The Times of India, The Hindu, Dainik Jagran, Navbharat Times, Maharashtra Times, Nai Duniya had sports as the first page on November 6th. This thought was taken forward on electronic news with Aaj Tak where Star Sports came first on news bulletin logo stings and anchors wore STAR Sports branded T-shirts”, Yadav said. Adding further on the activities on digital and social platforms, she said, “On digital, the thought was taken forward with all news becoming sports news on Yahoo and MSN networks. Also there was a strong engagement with all fans on Facebook with the total digital plan amassing over 15 million views for the new look in day one itself! This thought was also amplified in some digital and DTH platforms where Star Sports was the first channel fans would wake up to.” The network has also unleashed an outdoor campaign to coincide with the on-going Star Sports “Believe” India v West Indies series. Adding extra zing to the already massive campaign, the network has the ‘funny Indian cricketer’ Navjot Singh Sidhu in a engaging TV campaign created to promote “Star Sports 3” India’s first 24x7 Hindi Sports channel who extols the virtues of Hindi with the line “Joh baat Hindi mein hai, kissi aur mein nahin.”

Lastly, speaking about the new brand identity which follows the announcement, Yadav said, “We want to create a brand that breaks the rules, a brand that looks, speaks, sounds, and behaves like no other in the TV space. The new brand identity is a metallic star with an explosive incandescent trail symbolizing the authority and passion of sports. The brand identity has been co-created across 3 continents with the Star Broadcast Design team in India working with “Venture 3” in UK who worked on the brand identity and “Capacity” who designed the broadcast package. The bold new star icon is to stand for a new era of sport. The star is sharp, bold and iconic. It brings strength and authority to the channel; it brings the intensity and passion of sports to life. The fiery trail ignites and unites every sport, every player and every fan. It's the glue that runs through everything on the channel. This expresses the fluid and dynamic nature of sports.”